(Cree)

When the sun was starting to rise, I was already up. I barely sleep last night. I was hoping that we didn't get the village in between this battle. 'If I lost that castle, I would surely lose it myself….go crazy.' I thought.

I looked at a picture of my mom and dad on my desk. Mom was so beautiful in this picture and dad was as handsome as can be. Akemi, my mom, which means bright beauty, had on a white mid-thigh dress with a little slit up the right thigh, with a blue rose over her heart, her hair was long and black as the night sky without stars. My dad, Junichi, which means obedient one, had on dark blue pants, with a lighter-dark blue shirt, his hair was long until mom made him cut, his hair was a light blue. I had on a blue dress with white lagans underneath. Mom had put a blue rose in my hair.

"Oh, so that's why I like the color blue so much, it's our family color "I said to myself then looked back at the picture.

We were at a stream in the middle on the forest when we came to visit Uncle Shigure. Riku was the one who shot the picture. I didn't want to get my picture so I took her camera and pushed her into the stream. I got scolded, but it was fun. After Riku got out of the water she ran after me. We ran around mom and dad four times before they stopped us.

"I'll never forget this moment….this is right before my parents were killed" I said to myself starting to cry.

After me and Riku were standing against our parents we heard a gunshot. Mom and dad looked at each other and told us to run away. At first my sister and I just ran behind a tree. When we saw a man standing in front of our parents, Riku started to silently cry. He said "My son will marry the heir to the thrown" and shot both mom and dad. I didn't understand what he meant and I still don't but, when I think back at the man who shot my parents….he looks familiar. Anyway, I took Riku's hand and I dragged her with me. We ran and ran as fast as we could, until we found the abandoned castle. Riku and I stayed there for hours on end. Riku fell asleep and I placed her head on my lap and soon I feel asleep as well. The next thing I knew there was a bright light in my face and I opened my eyes. It was Uncle Shigure and his guards. They took us back and told us that our parents were dead.

"Cree you alright" I heard a voice behind me.

"RAIL, GOD, don't scare me like that" I said "How did you get in my room?"

"Your door" he replied.

"But, my door was locked" I told him.

"So you thought, Cree"

"Oh"

"Are you thinking of your mom and dad?"

"How can you tell?"

"You're crying and holding the picture of them"

"Oh….yeah I was, I always do when I'm nervous"

"Ok, well you need to get downstairs, your uncle is waiting" said Rail

Rail was getting ready to walk out the door until I ran over to him and hugged him from behind and I cried into his back.

"Rail, I can't do this…it's been so long" I sobbed

Rail turned around and was holding me and telling me that it was going to be alright. He hugged me tighter every time I cried out loud. We stood there for a few minutes until Ayame walked past the door. He stopped and looked at the picture I had dropped going to hug Rail. He just stared at me and Rail hugging. He got a sad look on his face and walked away. After he left, Rail let me go and told me to finish getting ready. I nodded and got ready. I put on my clothes I used for battle and I grabbed my sword and other weapons. I looked at the sword; it was a combination of my mom's sword and my dad's sword. It was my dad's blade, but it was my mom's grip for it. The grip was blue of course, with a blue rose in the middle of the meeting of the grip and blade. I walked down to the throne room and I saw my uncle, Rail, Ayame, and Rail's dad, Akio, meaning glorious hero.

"Good morning Cree, I trust you sleep well" said Uncle Shigure.

"Yes Uncle, I did sleep well" I lied.

"Well plan is… same as always…attack when I say, fight for your life, come back when I say…..oh must we not forget….SHOW NO MERCY." Said Uncle

"Yes" Rail and I said in unison

"Good plan sir" said Ayame.

"Yes, well thank you, but I need you, Rail, and Cree to leave the room for a moment" said Uncle.

"Of course" we all said. We walked out of the room and Rail and I went one way Ayame went the other way. Half-way down the hall I told Rail I need to look in the library for something and we split.

I walked into the library and I went to the way back and instead of finding a book I found Riku.

"Hey Riku, what are you doing back here" I asked

She was on the floor with her head down in her lap and she mumbled something like "it's nothing". She sounded like she was crying, so I got on the floor next to her and asked her again.

"IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS" she yelled while looking me in the eyes and I could tell she was crying.

I put my arm around her shoulder and I pulled her close to me. She looked at me and she looked back to the floor.

"Sis, I really didn't mean what I said yesterday, I don't want you to get hurt or killed…. I was mad and embarrassed… I didn't know what to do." Riku said.

"We all know it's hard for you to deal with embarrassment" I said

"What is the supposed to mean" she asked

"You don't know how to deal with embarrassment, so you turn it into anger and take that anger out on me" I explained

"Your right…..you're always right" said Riku

"I'm not always right….I wish I was always right, but I'm not" I said

"There is another reason why I have been taking my anger out on you a lot more "

"Why?" I asked her

"It's because, I'm jealous of your engagement to Ayame" replied Riku.

"What, your jealous of my engagement with Ayame….but why?" I asked.

"Because….I...I love Ayame…he seems right for me" Riku explained.

"Well you can have him, I don't like him, and he's cocky and annoying"

"That's why I like him so much"

"Well maybe after the battle, I can ask uncle if you can marry Ayame" I said

"Really, you would give up your chance at happiness for me"

"Oh, trust me, I'll be happy without him and I'll be happy if my sister is happy"

"Cree, thank you" Riku said while hugging her sister.

"CREE IF YOUR IN HERE, COME ON WE NEED TO HEAD OUT." Called Rail

"Well looks like we have to go, Riku if anything happens, I love you Riku" I said while hugging her again.

"Cree, nothing's going to happen, but come home safe and unharmed, mom and dad want to see you home safe and sound" said Riku.

"Alright, love you sis" I yelled as I ran out of the library

"Right back at you, sis" I heard Riku yell back.

I ran to the front door and I stopped right before I went out.

"This is it, mom, dad, Riku, I'll come home….but Karu..Please I hope this battle does not get you involved" I said to myself.

I stepped outside and I saw my uncle on his horse ready to leave. I ran next to Rail and he grabbed my hand. I squeezed it and we took off.

"Let's do this" I heard Rail whisper.

"Yeah, let's" I whispered back.

'OFF TO BATTLE' I thought.

(KURENO)

We were on our way to the battle and I started getting an odd feeling in my stomach like I was going to see something I didn't want to see. Like something that would haunt me for the rest of my life. Well then again I am going into battle so someone getting decapitated would scare me for life. As my brothers, Arisa, my uncles general, Arisa's dad, my uncle and I all rode horse back to the battle grounds I could see people coming in the distance it look like a bunch of black horses and black armor. Which really didn't surprise me, and as we got closer and closer I could see the image of the people better and they were mostly men. Then I seen a guy with white hair, and right away I knew it was Aqua's friend Rail. At that point it felt like my stomach became a bottomless pit

"Kureno for crying out loud are you ok? I have been trying to get our attention for the past five minutes," said Arisa with a mixture of worry and frustration.

"O sorry I'm just deep in thought I'm fine," I replied.

"You sure cause we can always go back if you don't want to go," she said.

"Yeah I'm sure, I'll be fine."

"Ok, if you say so."

We rode on and then I saw a man on a horse waiting in the middle of the battle field. He was tall and had long black hair but he didn't look like a man who would be suited for battle. Uncle Hatori rode up and stood about five feet away from the man on the other horse and they started talking.

"That's Shigure Lacrow, he is the head of the family and leader of his kingdom," whispered Karu.

"Yeah he doesn't look it but he is the most skilled fighter I have ever seen in my entire life," comment Hikaru.

"How do you guys know all of this stuff?" I asked.

"It's a little thing I like to call research and observation little brother," said Hikaru.

"Yeah we have battled him before and him and uncle use to be good friends," said Karu.

"Yeah we found his journal from when he was a kid," said Hikaru.

"You two are so neby sometimes," I said, then I noticed that my uncle had given the signal for the head party to move back. So we turned around and went to stand with the rest of the army.

"On your call," shouted my uncle raising his hand to the air. When I look over Shigure was doing the same then all of a sudden his hand came down and his army started moving forward, and at the same time so did we. We charged, and as we met in the middle the battle had begun. Three men ran at me at with riffles I grabbed my pistol and shot each of them and rode off before I could watch them fall and die. Then I looked to my right to see someone getting their head chopped off. 'That's not something you see every day,' I thought. The battle went on for what seemed for hours and I found my brothers who had been searching for me to make sure I was doing ok then after they left to go back to battle I saw something blue and black speed past me. I don't know why but I followed it. When I found it, I found that it was a soldier, no scratch that a woman. She had been fighting a soldier from my army so I went over and as she was about to stab him with her sword, I grabbed her wrist and held it so she couldn't cause any further damage. Then she looked me and I stared into her eyes for what seemed to be forever until I finally notice that it was my greatest fear, it was Aqua.

"No, it can't be," I said, "No Aqua it can't be you can it?"

"No it can't be Karu," she whispered in horror and complete agony, "And it's not Aqua, my real name is Cree, and I'm assuming that Karu isn't your real name either, what is it then?" she asked pulling her hand away.

"Kureno," I said, "My real name is Kureno, and I am the prince of the South Kingdom, and I'm assuming you are from the Northern kingdom, am I correct?"

"Correct as you will ever be," she replied Horsley.

"Why didn't you tell me you were a Lacrow?"

"O yeah I'm really going to tell a guy that I only knew for a few weeks that I'm a Lacrow and I'm in love with him o yeah real smart," she said and then gasped covering her mouth with her hands.

"Well same here, but- LOOK OUT!" I said as someone came from behind her. She screamed and fell off the horse and was screaming in agony on the ground clutching her leg. I looked up to see that it was my uncle who had attacked her, he must have known that she was the princess. He was getting ready to give her a final blow but I had gotten between them.

"Kureno! What are you doing? Get out of the way, now!" he said sternly.

"No I won't let you hurt her," I replied.

"Ha! So you go and see her when you sneak out!" He exclaimed.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb Kureno, I may be old but I'm not stupid you sneak out in the late hours of the night, for example last night, you were nowhere to be found then you magically appear out of nowhere!"

"So like you ever cared anyways, you said we can do as we please then you go and arrange marriages for all three of us! What is up with that?"

"What are you saying? Wait, where did the girl go?"

I looked around and couldn't see her anywhere, 'she couldn't have gotten far with that injury,' I thought 'so someone must have helped her.' Right as I was thinking that I saw Rail carrying her toward their base. "She is somewhere safe," I said.

"I will deal with you later," he said then turned to his general, "I want that princess captured and an escort to take Kureno back to the castle, he needs some time alone to think."

"But Uncle," I objected.

"I will deal with you later Kureno!" he said then rode away.

As we rode back to the castle all of a sudden we hear many horses coming our way and then everything blacks out and I fall to the ground.

(Cree)

As Rail carried me back to the base I was really hurt. My leg throbbed in pain and I just wanted to scream. I had to keep my mouth shut for mine and Rail's safety. One false sound and the Hikari's will find us. We were taking the back way. My head was buried Rail's chest and when I looked up I seen a small stream.

'That means we're near the old abandoned castle. '

"Cree, aren't we near that old castle that you and HIM went to see each other?" asked Rail

"Yeah" I said '

"Good, that means we are half way to the castle, just relax Cree; I'm going as fast as I can"

"No, go to the abandoned castle, it's our only chance to be safe, I can hear hours behind us, hurry"

"You're right; I hear it too, alright to the old castle"

Rail ran as fast as he could, we were an three inches away until Rail tripped over a tree root sticking out of the ground. He fell flat on his face and I was thrown half way away from him. I screamed a really loud scream. Rail and I heard people talking in the distance.

"I heard a scream, it came from over here" said a soldier

We heard footsteps, and a whole lot of them. Rail looked at me with a worried look and he smiled a half smile.

"Cree, hurry you can make it to the castle, you can crawl there"

"But what about you, what are you going to do?" I asked urgently.

"I'll be fine just go now!" I nodded my head and tried to get up to limp to the castle but I couldn't get up. I heard the voices of the soldiers getting closer so I crawled as fast as I could but the voices were getting closer then I heard one of them say:

"Look over there, there is a boy on the ground," said one soldier.

"He has the uniform of a Lacrow we will take him back to the battle field and leave him there for the Lacrows, we only have orders to get the girl," said another.

"Look ahead I see someone crawling!"Exclaimed a soldier on a horse, "Retrieve her she won't get too far!"

'Damn it,' I thought, 'I'm done for." I couldn't crawl anymore the pain was too bad so as they got closer I collapsed I tried to get back up but even if I slightly moved my leg it hurt so badly. 'Damn it, it's infected,' I thought before I completely blacked out.

'Mmm, heat hurts and my leg' I thought as I tried to sit up.

I woke up in a cold, old, and damp cell. 'I'm in the dungeon. If I'm right I should be in the Hikari's castle.' I got a really bad pain in my leg as I sat up, but I was able to sit up. I saw there was one window in the cell. As I looked out the cell door, I saw that there was no one else in the other cells and there were two guards at the door.

"I see you have woken up now princess" said a man with blonde hair down to his ears. "Did you uncle really think he could he could beat me in battle"

"What have you done with my family" I demanded

"Not a thing, they ran as soon as they heard we had you, but they took my nephew with them" said Hatori

"What nephew?" I asked

"You know him very well, his name is Kureno Hikari, you know him as…"

"Karu" I whispered

"Yes, I have known about your secret meetings every week" replied Hatori

"How did you find out about that?"

"I had an anonymous tip" he said with a big smirk on his face

I got a very worried look on my face and I felt sick to my stomach. I'm here and Rail is hurt and Kureno is at my castle. I hope my uncle does not hurt him. I want to cry but I can't. I won't cry in front of him, I won't show my weakness. I look up and see two boys standing behind Hatori. They both have brown hair but, one has blue eyes the other has brown eyes.

'These must be Kureno's older brothers, the twins' I thought.

"Boys, I need the two guards from here, so will you two watch her while we make plans to go and take Kureno back" said Hatori.

"Yes Uncle" said the twins in unison.

"WAIT" I yelled out

Hatori stopped and looked back at me. "What" he said.

"Why did you guys kidnap the princess and kill her centuries ago?"

"Why do you all think that, we did not such thing, it was the Teivel family"

"What" I said in shock

Hatori left with two guards in charge of the dungeon. The twins sat right in front of my cell and looked at each other and smiled.

'The Teivel family, but that's Ayame's last name' I thought

"So you're the girl our little brother is in love with" said Karu

'He's in love with me, I never would have figured' I thought

"It's too bad he won't get to see you" said Hikaru

"What "I finally said

They didn't answer me after that so I deiced to just rest a little bit. When I started to fall asleep the last thought I thought was 'Kureno, be safe'.

(Kureno)

I awoke abruptly to find myself in a somewhat descent cell it had a hay bed with a wooden bench and some food by the door. 'I'm not going to eat that,' I thought, 'I don't know what they did with it or how long it has been sitting there.'

"He is awake go get Lord Shigure," said a voice from outside the cell. About 5 minutes later a man with long black hair walked into the cell

"So you're Prince Kureno, the one who has been seeing my niece," said Shigure.

"How did you know about that," I said rubbing my head.

"Well I didn't know who you were so I was going to kill you but a friend of my niece told me who you were so there for I spared your life," He said evilly.

'Damn how am I gonna get myself out of this one?' I thought.

"Actually Rail has requested to meet with you so I will go fetch him, so you will have a visitor shortly," he said grimly.

'Crap, what am I going to do? What happened to Cree? I hope she is alright.' I thought. A few minutes later Rail walked in the cell on a crutch and his arm in a sling. He hobbled over to the wooden bench and sat down facing me.

"Ummm," was all I could say.

"Where is she?" He asked.

"If I know my uncle well enough she is in the dungeon at my castle." I replied.

"If she is hurt I swear to god Kureno. . ." he said trailing off.

"She won't get hurt more than she already is," I said through my teeth.

"She better not," he said lowering his voice, "I talked to Arisa we are going to get you and Cree out of the predicament you two are in now."

I nodded my head then said, "Why are you doing this?"

"Because Cree loves you and if anything happened to you she would be devastated and I can't stand seeing her upset," he replied.

"You love her don't you," I said half questioning and making a statement, "more than just like a non-blood-related sister."

He closed his eyes and put his good hand in a tight fist and said, "Yes, but I know she never has seen me like that and I think I already found someone new," he said looking up.

'I didn't have anything to say to it. I mean come on like I knew he liked her like that and she didn't like him back the same way I mean come on like I was suppose to know that ,' I thought

"This is going to go down real soon so make sure your ready when I come to get you, you got it," he said in a low voice.

"Alright," I said.

He got up and slowly headed for the door.

"Rail, wait," I said standing up. He stopped and turned to look at me, "Thanks."

"Just don't ever hurt her. 'Cause if you do I seriously will kill you," he said, then left.

After Rail left I sat on the make-shift bed that they gave me and was just speechless.